Girl in wheelchair sits silently at shut Macedonian border for hours

IDOMENI, Greece Feb 26 (Reuters) - Wheelchair-bound Zhino
Hasan, 17, sat silently and alone for most of Friday in front of
a closed border gate, hoping that Macedonia would relent and
allow her and her family to resume their northward trek through
the Balkans to Germany.

Her father, Sarkawt, wheeled her there at daybreak on
Friday, hoping to get a headstart in the queue whenever the
border Greece shares with Macedonia in the small community of
Idomeni reopens.

The Hasan family, Iraqi Kurds from Kirkuk, are among at
least 20,000 refugees and migrants trapped in Greece following
successive border shutdowns along the Balkan route used by
refugees to reach wealthier European nations.

"We want to get to Germany," said Sarkawt Hasan, 46. They
arrived in Greece through the island of Lesbos eight days ago.

Strapped in and wearing no shoes, Hasan is handicapped and
unable to speak. When it started raining, her family covered her
with plastic bags.

Hunched to one side in a black fleece hoodie covering her
face, she sat in front of a sliding iron gate topped with razor
wire. Occasionally, Zhino's father would call across the border
asking Macedonian police to open the gate, but did not get a
response.

"I am begging (United Nations' Secretary-General) Ban
Ki-Moon for help, I'm begging the EU to open the borders," he
said.

"My daughter needs help. I don't know what to do."

Macedonia and other countries along the Balkan route have
agreed to limit the flow of migrants to about 580 per day per
country, Slovenian police said on Friday, one day after a
meeting on the crisis hosted by Austria.

Greece, furious over not being invited to the talks in
Vienna, asked its passenger ferry companies and travel agencies
on Friday to cut back on bringing migrants and refugees from
frontline islands to the Greek mainland.

Macedonia has previously said it will only now allow Syrian
and Iraqi nationals to cross its border from Greece.
(Writing By Michele Kambas; Editing by Gareth Jones)